The WOOD BEE CARVER is primarily a knife carver who also has enjoyed the sideline activity of turning old pocket knives into carving knives.  Old junk pocket knives were purchased very cheaply at junk stores, flea markets and garage sales over the years for the purpose of salvaging these once noble instruments of boyhood lore.

One such knife was at one time a “gentleman’s knife” that was unique with having six blades in a knife frame that was of jewelry quality.  But as so often happened the knife experienced rough use over the years that by the time I found it over thirty years ago, two of the blades were broken and the handle and frame was badly abused.  In my eyes it still had life in the remaining four blades.  In the late 1980’s the knife was taken apart very carefully in order to remake it into a two bladed pocket knife and the other larger blades were placed into wooden handles made of Tiger wood.  This hundred-year-old knife was made by the Germania Cutlery Works of Germany.

The carbon steel blades sharpened up very nicely into good carving blades. The steel used in old German made knives have a unique feel of cut when compared with the feel of cut in other makes of knives. Thus, these blades had a special appeal to me when used for carving. The refurbished two bladed pocket knife contained two pen shaped blades in a small framed handle which was not comfortable for carving for long periods of time do to hand cramping, as is the case for most pocket knives. The solution for this carver is to rescue such blades from a pocket knife handle and transfer each blade into a wooden handle of the shape and size that is comfortable for long periods of carving. This resulted in the most recent making of two “Other Knives” using the two pen blades out of the pocket knife handle.  The Mahogany wood handles were carved in the shape of a pistol handle and the blades were reshaped to fit the imagination of this carver for the carving of miniatures.

[Mahogany handles being shaped into a pistol handle]

[Top and Bottom knives are Tiger Wood handles ~ Middle knives are Mahogany handles]

The term “Other Knives” refers to knives made by this carver for his personal use and the experimenting of functional blade shapes.  There are several postings on this blog on how these “Other Knives” are made that can be found in CATAGORIES by clicking on “Knives.”  James Massey ~ the Alaska Woodchuck, has produced a YouTube video of the process for making such knives from pocket knife blades.  To view this video, click on James Massey who I appreciate for his quality instructional aid.

So the question remains, “Why continue to make knives when a person already has so many?” The answer, in my case is because it is an enjoyable sideline activity of the carving process and it is experimenting with blade shapes that may become a useful carving knife.  Like the Old Carver says about knife accumulation, “One is dandy, two are handy and three are never enough.”